Unlike vocational school welding lab or indoor welding shop where much of the work can be brought to a welding bench, shipyards have no choice but to bring the welders to the work site.

Operators must lower equipment dozens of feet down into tight spaces, through tiny portholes, and then perform a skilled weld in an area barely large enough to breathe, and at temperatures subject to the whims of Mother Nature.

“Students learn to weld in a perfect world, the classroom. The shipyard is not a perfect world,” Matt Purcell, weld lead for Dakota Creek Industries, said.

Purcell said that if new operators test under “school-like” conditions, they do really well on their weld test.

“Bu then they lose their mind when they get out on the boat. Because we weld in the real world, we now make the test for people to become a welder on our structural welding crew as hard as possible,” Purcell said. That includes making them weld while bending and kneeling, to weld joints that are difficult to access and welding in confined spaces.

Purcell notes that there are things that Dakota Creek Industries does to improve the results of “newbies.”

One of those things is to make sure welding leads stay in good condition.

“Voltage is going to change by how much feet of lead you have out there and what shape that lead is in. With even just one bad lead, your machine won't operate correctly,” he said.

Another trick is to give newbies the option to use .052-in.-diameter flux cored wire instead of the 1/16-in. wire.

“They won't put down as many pounds per hour with an .052-in. wire because it's smaller. However, because they're not welding as quickly, newbies won't make quite as many mistakes, which means less rework. It's better for everyone in the long run,” Purcell said.

He also notes that user-friendly equipment, such as the SuitCase X-TREME feeder and XMT 350 inverter, make it easier to train new welders.

“Keeping it simple and easy is the key to increasing overall operator efficiency and reducing weld cost,” Purcell said.